BEING JOYFUL!

"Don't postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson." -Alan Cohen
What is joy? What gives us joy? How can we bring joy to the forefront in our life? Webster dictionary defines joy as the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. That is one heavy statement. It is also a heavenly statement. If we break down the definition and examine one of the key words in the definition; well-being, it is evident that ONLY we can control our own joy because our well-being is molded by what we do. What are you doing TODAY to bring joy and personal well-being into your life? According to Traditional Acupuncture, joy is one of the five emotions associated with the five elements. The other emotions include fear, anger, sympathy, and grief. We achieve balance (good health) by continually moving around the cycle of the elements. If we get stuck in any one place, imbalance results. According to this philosophy, when balanced, we would inhabit each of these emotions about one fifth of the time, moving around our energetic/ emotional cycle just as nature moves from one energy to the next in its cycle of seasons. Joy, one of the 5 emotions associated with the Five Elements, reflects the energy of Fire -- an outward, expansive energy, the most Yang of all the energies. Joy is about radiance and movement. It shines from the eyes. It moves up and out through the whole body, exuding from every pore. Joy comes from a place deep within. It is about a vitality that is alive, moving in the body. I encourage you to find this joy that is there within you and bring it to the forefront of everything you do. When you feel joy, it is difficult to judge, complain, criticize and feel negative. Feeling joy makes a person automatically look at life with bright loving wide eyes, optimism and acceptance. I encourage you to grab the joy life is giving you and store it deep within you, resulting in a feeling of elation and well-being. Although the Christmas season has come and gone, thinking of personal well-being makes me want to sing JOY TO THE WORLD from the rooftops!